The Mech Touch

When Ves glanced at the project schedule, he felt despair. Starting up six design projects at once was a massive jump in workload.

Before, he already struggled trying to work on two projects at the same time, but now he had to split his attention between six projects at a time.

Fortunately, he already came up with a plan of approach to manage the incredible workload and demand on his time.

There was no way he could micromanage every single aspect of a project by himself like before.

The obvious solution was to delegate these responsibilities to someone he could trust to do a good job.

That latter part was a bit difficult to ascertain considering that all of the fifty new hires were pretty much blank slates to him. He had no idea who was suitable to be in charge.

For now, Ves and Gloriana chose the initial team leaders from the ones who appeared the most suitable according to their record and character profile. Whether these team leaders could actually manage a team and project remained to be seen.

Second, the pair still relied on some mid-level supervisors in the form of Ketis and Miles to solve all of the trivial issues.

Though both of the Journeyman candidates expressed a fair amount of dissatisfaction at dealing with these constant distractions, they soon shut up when Ves shoved a lot of Larkinson merits in their direction.

Everyone had a price!

As much as Ves favored Ketis, he took care not to pamper her too much. Though he considered her a friend, she was also an Apprentice Mech Designer who needed to overcome her own challenges in order to develop her design philosophy.

Handing everything over to her for free would only make her more complacent. By using his own progression as a model, Ves believed that mech designers like Ketis and the other assistants all needed a reason to squeeze the utmost of their potential.

Setting up a merit system was his way of laying down a path of progression to everyone. With a fair structure for awarding merits and a transparent list of useful, tangible rewards, every mech designer under his command had some short and medium-term goals to work towards!

Even if Ketis already enjoyed a comprehensive genetic tune-up during the Aeon Corona Mission, she still lacked a good implant. Ves already knew that she was aiming to earn hundreds of merits in order to save up for a good second-class cranial implant!

Seeing her exercise her duties with enthusiasm reassured Ves that she would be fine. As long as she retained sufficient time to work on her own designs, she became more motivated than ever to make the most of her time!

Though Ves did not have much experience with organizing a multi-team, multi-project design environment, Gloriana could draw on her personal experiences working alongside other Hexer mech designers.

She fleshed out the organizational structure of the Design Department and also instituted a lot of rules and protocols to make sure the projects progressed properly.

"It's not that easy to maintain half-a-dozen projects at once, but it isn't difficult either." Her projection spoke to Ves as they were about to collaborate remotely on one of their major projects. "Once you organize everything properly and put the appropriate supervisors in charge, we can easily scale it up. Bigger mech companies led by higher-ranking mech designers can easily maintain hundreds of projects at the same time."

Ves couldn't even imagine the complexity of doing so much design and research work!

"I thought that Hexer mech designers always have to put their designs through an arduous approval process."

"That's true. The council of matriarchs reject quite a lot of mech designs. This is why a Hexer Senior or Master tries to go for quantity. They design dozens if not hundreds of mech designs with the expectation that most of them will never be put on the market. Certainly, they can still be used in private, but most of them are discarded."

Damn! What a dreadful reality! Ves widened his eyes as he thought about the sheer waste in time, manpower and resources that this approach entailed. The thought that over ninety-five percent of someone's mech designs might never be put on the market sounded like a nightmare!

"Why does the Hexer mech industry even tolerate such a regime?" He asked.

"It's not as bad as you think. First, the mech designs that pass muster will always sell well because they have received the endorsement of famed and reputable matriarchs. Second, the competition in the Hegemony's mech market is not as crowded because of limited foreign and domestic competition, so any successful mech model will always achieve immense sales volumes. Third, the work put into the design of rejected mech designs never goes to waste. The lessons you learned, the shortcomings you discovered and the research results you have gained are all accumulations that will never go away."

In short, there was a logic to the Hexer policies. Just because Hexer mech designers were forced to design a lot of mechs due to an insanely high rejection rate didn't mean that they were being suppressed.

The better mech designers still achieved success. The Hegemony mech market still offered customers a lot of choice. The council of matriarchs merely filtered out the garbage models beforehand.

The stringent Hexer policies also encouraged every mech designer to focus their efforts on designing the highest quality of mechs that they could manage. Ves suddenly realized that a mech designer who focused so much on quality like Gloriana was a product of this regime!

Institutions shaped people. The matriarchs at the top chose very deliberately when they set up their rules.

Through institutional isomorphism, the structure they set up led to widespread changes in Hexer society that closely conformed to their goals!

In turn, the Hexer matriarchs and the people and organizations around them were subsequently shaped by the society they influenced.

It was a continuous feedback loop. Hexers did not see anything wrong with the ideas they formed and the policies they set. Instead, they became even more supportive of their own decisions!

Perhaps the biggest downside to the way the Hexers managed the mech industry was the concentration at the top. Novices, Apprentices and Journeyman barely had room to breathe, and they could forget about selling any commercial mech designs onto the market!

Most of them were either forced to pursue commissions or give up their independence and work for an established industry player.

This was also another reason why Gloriana only ran a small custom mech boutique back when she was based in the Hegemony.

In the Friday Coalition, a Journeyman was already good enough to set up a medium-sized mech company that sold thousands, if not tens of thousands of mechs a year!

Yet in the Hexadric Hegemony, an identical Journeyman would have only been able to sell less than a hundred mechs a year!

"Every state has a different way of managing the sale of mechs." She told him. "Most states maintain a fairly open economy, but there are plenty of states that maintain more restrictive policies like my home states. There are even a considerable amount of states that don't allow mechs to be sold at all because the government wants to hold all the power."

That was true. So far, Ves had been fortunate enough to grow up in the Bright Republic. His home state not only maintained a pretty open economy, but also allowed private ownership of mechs. He would have never been able to get his career off the ground so easily if not for these two conditions.

They soon moved on from this topic because time was ticking. With six projects on their hands, they couldn't afford to waste too much time on meandering discussions!

"Let's tackle the Cat's Paw Project for this session." Gloriana's projection suggested. "Unlike the Valkyrie Redeemer Project, we don't have to abide by the demands of DIVA and the Hex Army. It's a second-class mech design where we can exercise full power since it is solely reserved for our clan."

When they both called up a projection of the design, Ves briefly frowned.

Even though she said that their heavy artillery mech didn't need to conform to Hexer standards, in practice it was unavoidable.

The factory ship and combat carriers that the Larkinson Clan would soon acquire were all built by Hexers! This meant that the ships were built with Hexer technology, followed Hexer shipbuilding regulations and were being worked on by Hexer shipwrights and shipbuilders!

The Bunkers that Ves partially modified also followed this pattern. There were simply too many embedded components and systems in the bunkers for him to change. This meant that he had no choice but to conform to some arbitrary Hexer design limitations.

For example, instead of adding two or possibly four legs to their heavy artillery mech was not enough. The bunkers were designed to pair best with heavy mechs that featured six legs in an equidistant arrangement!

The design of the upper cover of the bunkers were also designed to accommodate six weapon hardpoints. There was hardly any point in adding more weapons to his Cat's Paw mech unless he wanted to add some spares. Putting less than six weapons in his design was also a suboptimal choice.

In conclusion, Gloriana's earlier statement might be technically true, but the reality was actually opposite!

No matter how much creativity he exercised, all of the design requirements and limitations effectively ensured that the Larkinson Clan's exclusive bunker mech would almost fit right at home in the Hex Army!

The draft design that they had sketched already reflected this inescapable reality. Resting on six legs that were meant to conduct a lot of heat from the mech to the ship, the machine boasted a broad, six-sided torso with a sensor-studded head and six different weapon barrels.

Due to capacity constraints, the pair opted not to stuff the mech with six powerful weapon systems. Though Gloriana reacted a bit annoyed at this decision, she knew that the cost of doing so was too great.

It was better to concentrate on fitting four proper main armament systems to the frame while devoting the remaining space to two smaller secondary armament systems.

Right now, Ves and Gloriana needed to settle on their choice of weapon systems.

"Energy weapons are indispensable. After all, one of the biggest advantages to bunker mechs is that heat management is essentially not a problem since the starship essentially acts as a giant substitute heatsink." He told her. "I think we should focus on punch and add a pair of powerful laser or positron beam cannons."

"Hmm." Gloriana looked thoughtful at the draft design. "That's not a problem. Laser weapons are more versatile and can be fired in many different firing modes. They're also easier to handle and more affordable. That said, the power and might of a positron beam weapon is a great advantage in itself. It depends on what kind of enemies you want our heavy artillery mechs to excel at taking out. Do you want it to fend off large swarms of weaker opponents, or a smaller number of stronger enemies?"

"The latter." Ves instantly decided. "I'm not afraid of an overwhelming number of weaker mechs, especially with mechs like the Doom Guard in our arsenal. It's the powerful opponents that we have to worry about. What is a Fridayman expert mech attacks us? What if someone from a first-rate state wants to get rid of us? What we lack the most is an answer to high-quality mechs with extremely strong armor systems. In terms of offensive punch, only lancer mechs can exceed the penetration power of a heavy artillery mech's large-caliber weapon systems."

They deliberated on the choice of physical weapon systems as well. Though they briefly considered sticking to energy weapon systems, Ves wanted to make his mech well-rounded enough to deal against a variety of enemies.

For example, if an enemy that was almost immune to energy damage such as the sandmen race suddenly attacked his fleet, he did not wish for all of his formidable artillery mechs to become irrelevant!

Ves and Gloriana were spoiled for choice in this regard, but they eventually decided to stick to something basic but solid.

"Gauss cannons. They're simple and direct!"